The Dominion FRIDAY, MARCH 28, 1919. CHAOS IN HUNGARY AND ITS CAUSE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 157, 28 March 1919, Page 6

The Dominion FRIDAY, MARCH 28, 1919. CHAOS IN HUNGARY AND ITS CAUSE

To a good many people the tragic changes that are taking place in 'Russia and within ,thc Central Powers of Europe must seem like a series of incoherent phantasmsnightmare visions of horror and suffering. The Bolshevist upheaval in Hungary has yet to develop, but already it threatens terrible possibilities. It used to be said that Asia began at Vienna, because the Ilapsbuig reign there resembled more the despotism of a Turkish Sultan than the rule of a European King. ■ In recent years', however, there has been more political freedom in Austria than in Hungary—where the aristocratic Magyar has played the tyrant, and has treated as helots millions of inhabitants in the land, and has thus brought about a political condition that makes it easy for the victims of tyranny and injustice to welcome the sham prosperity and the siiain freedom that the gospel of j, EMS and Tkotsky offers to them. Before touching on the social and political condition of the millions in Hungary, it is necessary to note the historical setting of tho present outbreak. The Dual Empire during the war was about ready to go to pieces, but it was held together by clamps of Prussian steel till near the end, when, in spite of Germany, it broke up into independent States. The Empehor Charles niadc a virtue out of a necessity, and handed over his imperial powers to (lie several national Governments. Before this was done, and before the armistice was signed, a revolution broke out in Budapest on October 30, and Hungary was declared a republic. This changc was not effected without bloodshed. Tho autocratic and reactionary Premier of the former Government, Count Tisza, was assassinated by three soldiers. Just two years before Count S'l'iißGKir. Premier of Austria, was assassinated by Dii. Adi.ee, who gloried in his deed, and said that the Austrian Government by its iniquity had put itself outside the legal domain, and every citizen was entitled to take it to account outside that domain, and Tisza's assassins took the same ground. On November 2 tho Emperor Charles freed the Hungarian Government of its oath of fidelity, and left it free to decide its form, of government. On November IB a republic was proclaimed, with Count Kajiolyi as Governor. It is this Government that has been captured for Bolshevism, and it is now carrying out Lexis's infamous programme of the confiscation of land and property, and, to cap all, has declared war against the Allies. Meanwhile, though pandemonium reigns in Budapest, this epidemic of vice apparently lias not yet spread through the land of Hungary. The political soil of Hungary, like that of lhissia, was suited for the seed of this Bolshevist pestilence. For a generation tho people of Hungary as a whole have been victims of a many-sided injustice at the hands of the Magyar aristocrats, who, like the .Prussian junkers, held the reins of power, and would not let them go. Out of the 19,000,000 of people in Hungary about half are Magyars and the other half arc made up of Germans, Slovaks, Eumanians, Croatians, and other races. Up till recently the Magyars were less than half of the population, but owing to the intolerance of the Magyars and grinding poverty, the other races in the land emigrated at a rate approaching 200,000 a year, and thus the Magyars form now 51 per cent, of tho population. The Magyar aristocrats have lorded over not only all the other races, but also over the vast majority, of their own race, and no place in the ramshackle Empire was more the scene of aristocratic rule than Hungary. The franchise, which was probably the most illiberal in Europe, was enjoyed by only six per Cent, of the total population, and that six per cent, placed the tyrannical Magyars in power for long years. Mr. Seton-'Watson, in his exhaustive study of Racial Problems in Hungary, points out that in tho public schools the languages of races other than Hungarian are shut out; that the unequal franchise is made more unjust by political corruption and ! jerrymandering; that the Law Courts are courts of injustice to the non-Magyar races;_ and that the non-Magyar Press is persecuted and reduced to a state of bankruptcy. The Magyar Government in its intolerance showed no bounds." The close of the war promised to bring liberation to a great part of the people of those nationalities, such as Rumanians, who suffered such persecution and hardship under the old regime The new Hungary; though likely to bo reduced in size and population, could have claimed a complete independence, and was in a position to establish a new order of things under wdiich the people would be given those full liberties and privileges which are enjoyed by the great democracies of the world. But instead, the capital has fallen a victim to the forces of lawlessness and disorder. The menace of Bolshevism has found a new foothold in its advance westward. From a military point of view Hungary's declaration of war on the Allies need occasion 110 alarm. Hungary as a military Power can do little at the present time. The real danger comes from tho spread of Bolshevism. At present it is impossible to say to what extend Hungary has become infected with this evil thing, but it seems plain that the difficulties of the Allies in checking its advance have been, materially added to by the new complication. There is somo compensation, however, to be found in the fact that it has had a useful effect in speeding up the final work of tho Peace Conference. The air will be cleared in many quarters when the full peace terms are definitely niii.de known.